Cattle and Horse Grazing near Choelquoit Lake

In November 2002, a guide outfitter (the complainant) asked the Board to investigate several range use issues on the Choelquoit range, south of Alexis Creek near Chilko Lake. The complainant asserted that the Ministry of Forests (MOF) wrongly believed that, in 2001, the complainant’s horses overgrazed a pasture when cattle belonging to adjacent licensees were responsible for the alleged overgrazing. The complainant asserts that the adjacent licensees allowed cattle to trespass onto the overgrazed pasture because they did not maintain fences between adjacent pastures, as required in their range use plan. The complainant also asserted that MOF knew about the trespassing cattle, but did not enforce the requirements of the licensees’ range use plan or the Forest Practices Code of British Columbia Act and related regulations.

The Board investigated whether grazing and range practices complied with the Code, and whether the requirements of the range use plan were appropriatenly enforced by MOF.